The Art Thief

Fact is stranger than fiction. This is an unusual read for me, I don’t read much non-fiction in general , but I must say I really enjoyed it. Thanks to my wife who gave me her copy after her book club. I thought the closing note on the reporting brought Breitwieser to life and I’ve already began looking for other information about him and his story. The storytelling by Finkel did a lovely job of bringing psychological, family and personal elements into play and expanding the mystery. It may even influence my experience visiting a museum or appreciating art. 4/5

A little melancholy thanks to Hawking

My wife has a headache this morning.  I'm missing her as she rests in bed.  The house is very quiet.  

I've just read a chapter called Is There Other Intelligent Life in the Universe? from of a new collection of Stephen Hawking writings called Brief Answers to the Big Questions.

Now my head hurts.

What Hawking says comes as a bit of a surprise and and I must say a little disheartening.  Perhaps on a more optimistic day, I would say what he says makes me feel very special indeed.

I've been listening a lot to a wonderfully insightful podcast called Make Me Smart with Kai & Molly and a question that they regularly pose is What's something you thought you knew but later found out you were wrong about?

Well, I've always had a strong belief (perhaps not a knowledge) that there was a high probability that we were not alone in the universe.  I had always thought that with the millions (billions) of galaxies in the universe, the chances of there NOT being a place like Earth that had some form of intelligence life has very low.  

But I think Hawking had a different view of the question and let's be honest, he's smarter than I am.  From Hawking I gathered that the chances that the apparent random possibility of the creation of DNA, mixed with the right timeframe, mixed with the chance of avoiding a asteroid collision, mixed with the fact that not all suns have planets and lastly, the chance that intelligent life has emerged from that DNA - that all points to very, very small odds.  Not to mention the fact, that if there was by chance, other intelligent life out there (at this point in timeline), then they are so far away, we'd never know.

And that's why I'm a little melancholy this morning.

Time for introspection

Perhaps inspired by A Wrinkle in Time (I'm reading the graphic novel version), reading a few year end messages on Facebook and the start of a new year, I thought I'd try and collect my thoughts on time, reflect on my time and the balance of time.

Although I love being entertained by the idea of time travel, from my understanding and Einstein's theory of relativity, time travel is not possible.

However, I do believe that we at the brink of extending our lifetimes and immortality will be a possibility in the future if we accept our evolution into a life form enhanced with technology.

But for me, today, January 1st, 2018, time is a finite resource and at the age of 53, time is something I think about quite often.  One of my biggest annoyances is a waste of time, either induced by my own action / inaction or when other actors waste my time.

I'm not necessarily saying that I'm focused on improving effectiveness or optimizing daily tasks and regular processes, but rather reducing obvious time wasters and making the most of what time I do have.

Possible time wasters:

• trying to find something to watch on television or Netflix
• researching purchases of products and services that I don't have an immediate need for
• making myself busy when work is slow
• trying to decide on meals
• watching sports on TV
• attending business calls that have little relevance to my job
• watching CNN

Moving on to the bigger picture, what should I do with the time I do have?  As previously posted, I have a lot of different interests and can see my awake time divided into learning, doing, creating and entertainment.  I try to maintain a balance, but what does it all amount to?  I hope my decisions enrich my life, I've always liked that word enrich - a simple, warm, but crisp two syllable word. 

en·rich - inˈriCH,enˈriCH/ (verb)

1. improve or enhance the quality or value of.
"her exposure to museums enriched her life in France"
synonyms: enhance, improve, better, add to, augment; 

But enriching my life on its own is selfish and misses out on other wishes I have in my life - enriching the lives of others.  Work and family life is the obvious canvas for this aspect of my life, but I'd like to think I can have a bigger impact on the lives of others.  Although I do give quite generously to charity, I'm guilty of not directly getting involved with helping less fortunate people.  I hope to find something in the future and I'm open to ideas others may have here. 

I also think there is another opportunity to enrich the lives of others and if I may be so bold, leave something behind when I die.

I've been reading Youval Norah Harai's Sapiens recently and loving his perspectives and how humankind got us to here.  But it's his newer book Homo Deus (recommended by a good friend a few months ago) that I read first and has impacted me the most (although I haven't finished Sapiens yet).  If there's not really the concept of a spoiler for works of non-fiction, let me touch on one hypothesis that has stuck with me than I'm using to justify my motivations to share.  

Re: Dataism.  "If life is the movement of information, and if we think that life is good, it follows that we should extend, deepen and spread the flow of information in the universe".  Harari goes onto talking about the modern world of "Record, Upload, Share" as a good thing and I've chosen to add this "simple" thing into my personal beliefs.  So that's why I share and I share quite a lot.  I'm not saying I'm tossing privacy out the window and I'm pretty uncomfortable with full disclosure which is so nicely featured in the book and movie entitled The Circle).  Related in many ways, my job and career is all about educating customers on cyber security and effective ways of protecting personal information.  I can help customers enable big data analytics without disclosing private information of individuals.  Most of us feel we're just a small part in a massive machine.  Well, that's right, but the system cannot function without contributions from many people.  

Coming back from that unplanned (and admittedly incomplete) two paragraph tangent, the point I'm trying to make is that I think it's a good use of my time to publicly share my findings.  Notice I'm not necessarily saying I'm sharing my life, but the stuff that I find that I think will be helpful or worthwhile for other people, I believe it's my job to pass it on.  As some of you know I share movie reviews, photography and new music discoveries, and here on this blog I occasionally share deeper thoughts about my life that I hope others can perhaps relate to.  So, I'm going to continue to do this.

There are still so many distractions, but I hope that 2018 is the time I get a clearer picture of my small and large contributions and I can say I'm making the best use of my time and enriching my short journey aboard this blue orb.

Although this post was inspired by a new year, apart from a few book and movie mentions, it doesn't include all the wonderful things that happened in 2017.  For that, you'd get a very good idea my looking at my photos on Flickr or perhaps my posts on Twitter.

Thoughts of the day - morning of Monday December 4th, 2017: Big Bangs and hypotheses; U2 and Economics

Inputs:

1. Reading Dan Brown's Origin - not finished yet, but hitting climax on futurist hypotheses reminding me of Yuval Noah Harari's Home Deus.
2. U2's performance of American Soul on Saturday Night Live.
3. Make Me Smart podcast - episode 41 - Do you hear the people sing.  So much to understand, but what to do with the new smarts?

Ideas:

1. Building on a Flickr group title as the basis of what I'm trying to say - The World Through My Eyes.
2. Using the Red Pill / Blue Pill concept from The Matrix - do you want to continue to live in this fake world, or do you want to know the truth?
3. What percentage of people who watch The Big Bang Theory believe in the big bang?

Life's too short for a long, mediocre read

I'm not a big reader.  I'm not a very fast reader.   I've had periods of my life when I gobble up a series, but many years of literary indifference and tiring from the written word.  That being said, I rarely give up on a book.   Why ?   Perhaps I feel it's disrespectful to the author.  There was something that attracted me to the book in the first place, maybe it will get better, maybe I should give it a real chance, maybe I'm not settled into the writing style yet.  So many times I persevere through a mediocre read, ending up perhaps with a feeling of accomplishment, but far from satisfaction, nor any gain of knowledge or insight and maybe not even that entertained.   

I occasionally pick up a book that my wife has read for one of her book clubs.  Some turn out to be very good, while others I start, never formally give up on, and they end up being added to the pile of "I'll read it some day" books.  Recently I enjoyed a book called This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes.   So much so, that I thought I'd try some of her other novels.  I signed into the library website and easily found a couple of titles and reserved them.   They quickly (perhaps too quickly) showed up at my local library for pickup.  I picked up Music for Torching and plodded thought it for a while but felt I wasn't really into it.  I started May We Be Forgiven which had an interesting premise, but again, couldn't get into it.  

For some people they simply stick with writers they love.  I've had periods of my life where I have focused on one writer such as Steven King, Lawrence Sanders, Clive Barker and Robert J Sawyer.  But I prefer to move around the genres a little more these days, but the risk is that I won't find something that works for me.

So, Ms. Homes, please don't take it personally, I'm sure a major part of the problem is me.  But I think it's sensible that if I'm not enjoying my current read, I'd like to save a few hours of my life and move on.  So, for me, I think it's ok to give up on a book, life's too short for reading things that isn't grabbing my attention and filling up my entertainment tank.

I find that downloading book samples is a good way to see if you will actually enjoy a book.  I had a little time to spare the other day and browsed around Indigo and picked up a few books that caught my attention.  I noted their titles, then that evening I did a little more research on the books at home and downloaded a sample of Time and Again by Jack Finney.  I quickly got into this classic time-travel story and couldn't wait for a online order and popped back to Indigo to buy the book at full price.  Loving it, review to come.

Book Reviews - 2012

Ready Player One 

by Ernest Cline (Goodreads Author) 

Easy entertaining read. Not the best in creative writing (but what do I know), but fun filled geek futuristic plot with great references to 80's entertainment and gaming culture. I didn't get all the references, but there were many personal favourites included in the game, including the last video game - it was my favourite too.

The Android's Dream 
by John Scalzi (Goodreads Author) 

Really liked the premise, the protagonists and the plot. But I got bogged down at times with the large number of other characters, many of which had very similar alien names. Enjoyable, but not as smooth reading as I'd hoped.

American Gods 
by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author) 

Great lead character and all kinds of precious moments and plot bits. However, I struggled a little thru the rich world of gods and Shadow's dreams.

No Time Left 
by David Baldacci 

I don't read many short stories - this was very short and rather simplistic (although I glanced a bit of a spoiler here in Goodreads). Nice character work that set the stage. But I guess, I just need more. Decent short lived distraction.

The Sixth Man (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell, #5) 
by David Baldacci 

The first Baldacci novel I've read. I enjoyed the page-turning pace, interesting characters and plot twists. Nothing earth shattering, but an enjoyable read.

Frameshift 
by Robert J. Sawyer 

A little disjointed, but as usual, a simple, brilliant idea is enough to carry the story. Just enough medical tech to reveal some of the mysteries of DNA. Some interesting political and societal commentary. Enjoyable and enlightening.

Triggers 
by Robert J. Sawyer 

I gobbled up this latest wonderful Sawyer novel really quickly. I had previewed the early chapters, attended the book launch here in Toronto, got Robert to sign the book and then had a few trips that gave me lots of time to enjoy it. As introduced, the style of this book follows on the success of the action drama of the Flashforward TV show, but don't worry, the anchor plot of 3rd party memory reading gets lots of attention. Sawyer explores many different avenues the phenomenon can take, with a truly mind blowing (and unexpected) grand finale. Great characters, speedy plot movement and larger-the-life sci-fi ideas, loved it.

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) 
by Suzanne Collins 

I must say I was quite disappointed with this second installation in the Hunger Games trilogy. There didn't seem to be that much plot development and the ending was rushed together with too many important factors not properly developed. That being said, the set up for the final book is pretty tasty.

The Map of Time 
by Félix J. Palma, Nick Caistor (Translator) 

Grand storytelling around some famous and infamous historical characters. Very clever interweaving of plot as a good time travel based story should be, with a twist. Wonderful finale wrapping things up in a very tidy bow. Favourite quote, page 585 - "...sometimes the best way to find out what we want is to chose what we do not want".

Quotes from the last week

From Felix J. Palma's The Map of Time, page 585 - "...sometimes the best way to find out what we want is to chose what we do not want".

From Fox's new TV Series Alcatraz, Episode 8 on the difference between spirituality and religion - "Spirituality is for those seeking understanding. Religion is for those seeking reward.”

Synapses

I just saw the movie Limitless tonight. My modest review on Facebook was:

I really liked it, lots of fun, action and an interesting premise. Plot could have taken a little more load, but all together, very entertaining. Gotta go and connect a few new synapses.

I then checked my Yahoo email and found an email from Luminato regarding the addition of the New Yorker series, which includes one my favourite authors and big thinkers - Malcolm Gladwell. I'm really excited about the opportunity to see him and hopefully hear about his new ideas.

Oh, and the coincidence ?  Limitless is based on the plot premise that what if there was a pill you could take that would allow you to use more/all of your available brain capacity.  And, if there's anyone who can quickly get your synapses firing and expanding your brain around new ideas, it's Malcolm Gladwell.  I'd highly recommend all his books, my favourite being Blink.

Lots of coincidences

Flying home from my business trip to California yesterday and I noted 3 coincidences, incl. Santa Monica Blvd, neighbourhood limo riders and girls on motorcycles.  See my Only Coincidence ? blog for the details from the books, movies and life in the city.

Santa Monica Blvd.

I was in Santa Monica for our sales conference this week.  Mostly business, but I managed to see a some of the city with a little walkabout with work colleagues Thursday night, incl. Santa Monica Blvd.  On the flight home I was reading a novel called The Lock Artist and the main character was on Santa Monica Blvd.

Girls on motorcycles

I just flew back home from Los Angeles and on the flight I read a few chapters of a book and caught a movie.  I'm currently reading a novel called The Lock Artist and in the chapter I was reading today, the main character whisks away his 17 year old girlfriend on the back of his motorcycle.  I also watched The Kids Are All Right and there's a scene where Ruffalo's character takes his 18 year old daughter for a ride on the back of his motorcycle.

Duke

I came home from my ultimate game tonight just in time to see the last 13 seconds of the NCAA Final Four Championship game.  Duke won by a couple of points.  Before bed, I then sit down to ice my ankle and I pick up What the Dog Saw to continue with a chapter I was reading a few days before.  After a few pages I read that one of people Gladwell is talking about went to law school at Duke.

Book extremes: Gladwell to Gaiman

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's third novel Outliers.  After reading all three, I'd say that Outliers is just as good as Blink, and better than Tipping Point, but as Outliers is most current in my head, it was just a fantastic, fascinating read and perhaps my favourite  non-fiction book ever.  I've been sprinkling in parts of the book into conversation with my wife, but find that it's rather difficult to summarize Gladwell's comprehensive life lessons into tea time digestives.  Sorry, you're just going to have to read it for yourself - but make sure we get together over a few drinks to talk about it afterward !  I've also been reading Gladwell's most recent book called What the Dog Saw, however it is a compilation of the his articles published in The New Yorker, as opposed to new material.  I have to say that Malcolm Gladwell is my favourite non-fiction author, his writing style is a simply a joy to read, full of colourful and interesting real world characters and he has just has an incredible knack of explaining very complex subject matter in a clear, entertaining and thought provoking way.  Needless to say, I'd highly recommend reading anything written (he also has a blog) by Malcolm Gladwell.


On the other side of the written-word coin is Neverwhere.  I found this book from my friend  Kelly who is a big fan and raved about the author Neil Gaiman on her blog a few months ago.  I'm only on chapter 3, but loving it already.  Again, the style of Gaiman's writing is easy to digest, but is also beautifully descriptive (and succinct at the same time) and the dialog does wonders for defining his interesting characters.  You may know a little of Gaiman's work becuase he wrote Coraline.  I recently watched this gem of a animated movie the other day with my daughter and really enjoyed it.  The fantasy genre, especially in a novel, is a little unusual for me, although I've read horror fantasy writers like Clive Barker in the past.  I do like some fantasy movies (like Pan's Labyrinth), but it's been a while since I've enjoyed escaping to wonderfully creative fantasy world every time a turn the page.  I mentioned the book and Gaiman to a friend from ultimate last night, and he was also a big fan and raved about his work.   Just as in the book, it turns out I've stumbled on a mysterious and marvelous new world - in my case the wonderful artistry of Neil Gaiman.  Time for bed and more Nerverwhere.

High Fidelity

In my coincidence last week, entitled An Education, I noted the work of Nick Hornby and have since started reading his latest book, Juliet, Naked.  One of Hornby's books that was turned into a movie and one I really liked was called High Fidelity.  I just saw in this week's NOW magazine that the stage version is opening tonight running through the end of month at the Hart House Theatre.

An Education

I was in the bookstore today and also doing some browsing online (Amazon always seems to have the best prices in Canada).  I recently finished The Lost Symbol and I was looking for some new fiction (as I already have a few Gladwell non-fiction books I'm currently reading).  I came across Nick Hornby, I'm not familiar with his books, however I've seen some of the movies adaptations, incl. High Fidelity and About a Boy.  I liked the premise of his new novel Juliet Naked and order it on Amazon.  But I did notice another title that sounded interesting, An Education, and also saw that it had been made into a movie.  I hadn't heard of the book or whether the movie was new or had already come and gone.  But the list of actors was pretty decent.  After work, I duck into 10 Dundas West where there happens to be an AMC movie theatre to make a quick call home.  While I'm talking to my wife, I notice a poster for An Education, now playing !

Gladwell goes Private

I'm really enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's new collection of articles - What the Dog Saw.  The article I was reading today discusses the invention of The Pill and more interesting the mistake the inventor made.  In true Gladwell big brain thinking style, the article delves deep into related fields, in this case, cancer.  He also talks about the circular design of The Pill's case and it's significance.


I pop downstairs in the evening and catch a few minutes of one of my wife's favourite TV shows - Private Practice.  There's a scene where one of the doctor's slyly hands the familiar looking, circular Pill case to a Jewish lady for medical and perhaps contraceptive reasons.


Haven't thought about The Pill for a long time and there it is "popping out" twice in one day. 

Role Models

I was in the waiting room of my physiotherapist's office and a father and son walked in from the elevator and the son was wearing a t-shirt with Role Model written on it. I couldn't see the logo or a clue to the inner meaning, but fair enough, maybe this kid really is a role model, say for other students at his school. Anyway, I was enjoying reading a novel called No Time for Goodbye as I'm waiting for my appointment, and a few pages after I see the kid, I read "I'm not the best role model". Which is rather an understatement coming from this criminal character in the book. Just as I'm writing this I remember a clever mass email I got around to reading today from my brother-in-law in Manitoba. It was entitled Who is your Role Model ? It goes something like this...

Each of us is the result of the influence of many people. However some individuals have played a significant role in our development, They are often called "role models" that we consciously or unconsciously imitate. Perhaps you know who that person is, or perhaps you don't. The world renowned Sir Trevoir Rigelsworth, Ph.D, has given us a simple way to determine our role model. It is easy and only takes a minute and it may surprise you.

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL???*

Be sure not to peek! You don't want to skew your answer.
Try this - it's really neat ..
Don't look at the answers:

1) Pick your favourite number between 1-9

2) Multiply by 3 then

3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the Calculator....)

4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number....

5) Add the digits together


Now Scroll down ..............



With that number, see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Mother Teresa
4. Randubius Raji
5. Bill Gates
6. Johann Von Stueckenberg
7. Brad Pitt
8. Babe Ruth
9. PJMixer
10. Barack Obama

I haven't done the math, but the simple logic is there somewhere, but these games are still a fun.

Loyalty ?

My wife was blogging and ranting about customer loyalty today (Bell vs Rogers). I stopped in at World's Biggest Bookstore (not sure if it truly is, but it is the closest bog book store to my office, and it is big and has a great selection) after work and the first book that caught my attention was Loyalty Management.

Watching, reading and listening updates

I've seen some very good movies of late at home: Into the Wild, Iron Man and Awake. There should be something there for everyone, well maybe not my kids or my wife !

• Awake - Great thriller, but it was over a bit too quickly (how often do you say that?). As someone else had reviewed - a little Hitchcock like. Synopsis doesn't really tell the whole story. 4/5.
• Iron Man - Lots of fun, especially with Downey Jr. hamming it up. Robot cool. Interesting BD live quizzes and bonus features on BD too ! 4/5.
• Into the Wild - Great movie mixing good pacing, fantastic acting, beautiful cinematography and thought provoking storytelling. 4/5.

I'm not a big reader, but the one I'm enjoying at the moment is Lovely Bones. It's a bit of a chic lit book, but I really like the premise of the story. I just found out that the movie version is in post-production for release in 2009.

There are a few new angles on music I've been thinking about. Maybe it's my middle age, but the gentle sounds of Daniel Lanois, Beth Rowley, and Neil Diamond are getting more attention, especially in quieter times (and I seem to need more of those these days). I've been listening a little to CBC Radio 2 in the morning. And even enjoying the odd country track, like Dolly Parton's Jolene.









Still on the music thing, and back to my normal channel, the new Kaiser Chiefs is really catchy, looking forward to seeing them next week !

And finishing up with some TV. Apart from my faves like Top Gear (old episodes), House and Entourage, I just watched the premiere of another quirky HBO show last night called Summer Heights High. The Australian show stars and is written, and produced by the very talented Chris Lilley. Immediately funny and it brings back that familiar awkward feeling from The Office.

Thoughts from Michelangelo

Life is like sculpture: a matter of seeing what others can't, then chiseling away the rest.

This is not an exact quote but a paraphrase of what I just read in The Rule of Four this morning. I thought it is a great analogy, one that perhaps I'm aspiring to.

Re: the book, from the reviews in metacritic I hope there are a few more gems to reference. (And yes, the pace of the book is far from The Da Vinci Code - this is the 3rd time I've started the book.)